Galileo Galilei, a contemporary of Kepler, built a telescope and began fixing its lens on the planets. He made a series of remarkable discoveries: that the moon was not flat and smooth, there were spots on the sun, Jupiter had moons that orbited it, Venus had phases like the moon, which proved th...

The man who started the scientific revolution was a Renaissance mathematician and astronomer, Nicolaus Copernicus.

Copernicus developed a heliocentric alternative to Ptolemy's planetary system. His system placed the Sun at the center instead of the Earth. The detailed controversial t...

• During the Renaissance, there was a renewed interest in the arts and literature. It led to a shift toward more independent thinking.
• In 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Roman Catholic Church. Luther promoted his thoughts by printing and distributing them,...

Human history is often framed as a series of episodes, representing sudden bursts of knowledge. The Agricultural Revolution, the Renaissance, and the Industrial Revolution are a few examples where it is generally thought that innovation moved quicker than at other points in history, leading to a ...

Much of the knowledge about the natural world during the middle ages dates back to the teachings of the Greeks and Romans. Many did not question these ideas, despite the many flaws.

• Aristotle taught everything beneath the moon was comprised of four elements: earth, air, water, an...